During the Easter holiday season, it has become common practice to provide for children and children-at-heart an Easter basket filled with chocolate bunnies, candy eggs, jelly beans and other chocolate and sugary candies and confections. In years gone by, natural grass served as the supporting material for the candy. In more modern times, the Easter basket is filled with colored strips of plastic synthetic material that imitates natural grass and forms the base upon which the Easter candy is placed. This cushions the candy to prevent it from becoming broken and provides a suitable container for transporting the candy.
Typical of the plastic synthetic grass strips that are used in Easter baskets and for other decorative purposes are those shown in the patent to Weder et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,266), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference.
One of the drawbacks from the use of plastic synthetic grass strips is that the grass strips are loosely placed in the basket and can be quite messy. The plastic synthetic grass is generally formed in thin, narrow strips or varying lengths. During the use of the basket, these grass strips become separated from the basket and often are left behind on table tops, furniture, floors and other surfaces throughout the house. Being particularly light and often made of colored material, they are difficult to pick up. Even using mechanical means to clean up the resulting mess runs the risk of fouling the internal workings of the vacuum cleaner.
For small children and house pets, there is the danger that these grass strips may be ingested risking the possibility of serious bodily injury. Because the grass strips are made from synthetic material, there is always the possibility that the grass strips will become attached to the candy, especially is the candy begins to melt which may happen at room temperature.
Also, each new holiday season necessitates repurchasing another supply of grass strips for use in the Easter baskets because there has been no convenient way to store the grass strips for reuse.
It is an object of this invention to provide a container for grass strips used in Easter baskets to keep the grass strips inside the basket and separated physically from the candy to minimize the possibility of inadvertent ingestion of the grass strips and to minimize the grass strips from being strewn around the house.
It is a feature of the present invention to utilize a mesh container to hold the grass strips. The mesh container can be sized to fit various size baskets and will be flexible to conform to various interior shapes of the basket.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the grass strips that are used in Easter baskets are contained in a mesh container that holds the grass strips inside the basket, allows for easy storage and reuse of the grass strips and both minimizes the possibility of inadvertent ingestion by children and minimizes the strewing of the grass strips about the house.